Preview

The Effect of Osmosis on Potato Cells

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
3526 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Effect of Osmosis on Potato Cells
Page 1: Homepage

Page 2: Contents

Page 3: Introduction

Pages 4 – 7: Preliminary Experiment

Pages 8 - 14: Main Experiment

Introduction

In this experiment I am going to investigate the effect of varying concentration of a differing glucose solution on the amount of osmotic activity, between the solution and a potato tuber of a given size. The purpose of this experiment is to demonstrate how living cells rely on osmosis, the diffusion of water. Osmosis is the movement of water molecules (H20) from a region in which they are highly concentrated to a region in which they are less concentrated. This movement must take place across a partially permeable membrane such as a cell wall, which lets smaller molecules, such as water, through but does not allow bigger molecules, such as glucose, to do so. The molecules will continue to diffuse until the area in which they are found reaches a state of equilibrium, meaning that the molecules are randomly distributed throughout an object, with no area having a higher or lower concentration than another.

Investigation – Preliminary Experiment

Strategy

In my preliminary experiment I am going to be seeing how potato tubers react when placed in of 0m (distilled water) 0.5m and 1m (glucose solution). I am doing this to gain some knowledge about how the potato tubers will be affected; so when I do my main experiment I will have basic knowledge on what will happen, this means I will be able to spot outliers more easily and learn from any mistakes which may have been made in the preliminary.

Molar = (m)
Mass/weight = (g)

Depending on certain factors the osmotic activity between the potato tuber and glucose solution will either increase, decrease, or unaffect the mass of the potato, such as – whether the sugar to water ratio inside the potato and outside of the potato differ

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Biolab 1208 Lab Report

    • 840 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Introduction: The biological membranes are composed of phospholipid bilayers, each phospholipid with hydrophilic heads and hydrophobic tails, and proteins. This arrangement of the proteins and lipids produces a selectively permeable membrane. Many kinds of molecules surround or are contained within cells, but water is perhaps the single most important molecule in any living system (Hayden and McNeil 2012). Since water molecules are so small, they are constantly going into and out of the cell. Osmosis is a situation where more water molecules are moving across the membrane in one direction than the other (Hayden and McNeil 2012). During osmosis the net movement of water molecules will be from a solution that has a lower osmotic concentration to a solution that has a higher osmotic concentration. When a solution has a higher concentration of solute within the cell than out, it is called hypertonic. When a solution has a lower concentration of solute within the cell than out, it is called hypotonic. And when there are equal concentrations inside and out of the cell, it is called isotonic. The relative osmotic concentration can be determined by a change in mass of the tissue.…

    • 840 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This exercise involves estimating the osmotic concentration of potato tuber cells by using a change in mass method. The null hypothesis states that there will be no change of mass of the potato disks after they have been incubated in any sucrose solution. This means that the concentration of sucrose that the potatoes are in will no effect the movement of water in or out of the potato cells. However, the alternative hypothesis states that the mass of the potato disks will increase after they have been incubated in a hypertonic solution. The mass of the potato disks will decrease after they have been incubated in a hypertonic solution. After the results have been gathered, appropriate estimations can then be made as to what the osmotic concentrations of the potato tuber cells are. Osmotic concentrations will either be hypertonic, hypotonic or isotonic depending on the results of mass change of the potato tubers.…

    • 367 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    This experiment gave a visual understanding of osmosis and diffusion. The first experiment proved that solutes would move down a concentration gradient if permeable to the selective membrane. The second experiment proved different solute concentrations affect the movement of water, depending on the solute concentration inside the cell. The purpose of this lab was to look for different solutes that can cross an artificial membrane and to observe the effect of different concentrations of sucrose on the mass of a potato cell. Results for Part One suggested that the molecular weight of albumin and starch was too large to pass through the dialysis tube, but glucose and sodium sulfate molecules were small enough to pass through the dialysis tube. Also, a decrease in water weight occurred due the dialysis tube being placed in a hypertonic solution. Results for Par Two showed the potato cell having a molar concentration of 0.2734, which caused sucrose concentrations above 0.2 M to have a decrease in mass. Inversely, sucrose concentrations below 0.2 M caused an increase in mass.…

    • 2179 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Potato Osmosis Paper

    • 587 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The purpose of this experiment is to observe the osmosis reaction in a potato with salt and water. In cooking cooks will soak their cut potato's in water if they will not use them immediately. This allows the potato's to be used later without turning color. The experiment shows the flow of water through the membranes of the potato with salt over a period of four hours.…

    • 587 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Osmosis Lab Response

    • 310 Words
    • 2 Pages

    As the concentration of a solute in water will, through osmosis, transfer until the concentration is nearly the same both inside the cell, or in this case potato, and outside of the cell, the potato strips both gained and lost mass due to the different concentrations of sugar in water. As expected, the potato strips placed in the concentration of sugar water closest to the concentration of sugar water in a potato had the least amount of change in mass. As the potato strips placed in substance Z and substance A both changed 7%, the concentration of sugar water in a potato must be somewhere in between a concentration of 0.4 and 0.6. One source of error for this lab is that the amount of substance placed into each Dixie cup was not measured and therefore were not consistent. If this lab were repeated, it is suggested that the amount of substance be measured in order to produce more consistent results.…

    • 310 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Osmosis: Osmosis is the diffusion of water across a partially permeable membrane. This happens when an area of high concentration and an area of low concentration are separated by a partially permeable membrane. Water disperses through the membrane to reach equilibrium and perfect balance between water and glucose. When the ratio between water and glucose is equal on both sides it is isotonic.…

    • 2369 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    PotatoLabReport

    • 1275 Words
    • 6 Pages

    interior of the cell. The process by which water crosses membranes from region of high water concentration to regions of low water concentration is called Osmosis. Osmosis is the process whereby water moves across a cell membrane by diffusion. Diffusion takes place when the molecules of a substance tend to move from areas of higher concentration to areas of lower concentration. Cells must tightly control the process of osmosis otherwise they will die. Plants with too little water will wilt. This happens when water moves out of the cells by osmosis. Without this water there is little pressure inside the cell and the plant can no longer support itself against the pull of gravity.This experiment is to find out the water potential of potato cells . Water potential is the ability of water to move down gradient of water potential through partially permeable membrane until the gradient is constant.The purpose of this investigation is to see how a plant , in this case a potato , reacts to different concentrations of sucrose. Hypothesis:If we place potatoes in sucrose solutions then as the concentration goes up, the change in…

    • 1275 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Potato Osmosis Lab

    • 3353 Words
    • 14 Pages

    Microscopy, Cell Structure and Function Task 2 I: Name and describe the four main types of tissues in animals stating their functions and their location in the body give two examples of each type. The four main types of tissues that you will find in eukaryotes are connective, muscle, nervous and epithelial tissues; each of which having very different roles.…

    • 3353 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    vugj

    • 460 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Introduction: Osmosis is the diffusion of water from a higher concentration to a lower one through a semi-permeable membrane and occurs in the cells of organisms. It is affected by the addition of solute which would lower the water potential, making water potential and solute concentration inversely related. The concept of osmosis loosely described is that the presence of more solute outside the cell means the presence of less solvent (or water molecules in this case) and vice versa; the goal of osmosis is for the water molecules inside and outside of the cell to be equal, causing equilibrium and a stop to net water movement. The goal for a recent lab was to test whether cubes of potato would gain or lose weight depending on the amount of molar concentration of sucrose they soaked in. Solutions made of different molar concentrations of the solute sucrose were prepared before this lab. Potato cubes were weighed and recorded as the initial mass in the data. Four cubes of potato were placed into 100 mL of each solution and let stand overnight. The cubes were then taken out for the final total mass to be measured and recorded. In this experiment, the potato cubes were the dependent variables, and the molar concentrations were the independent or manipulated variables.…

    • 460 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Biology Eei

    • 3499 Words
    • 14 Pages

    The aim of this experiment was to test the effect of surface area on osmosis and the effect of solute concentration on osmosis. To test this aim to hypotheses were devised. 1) If potato pieces are immersed in various salt solutions, then the pieces with the greatest surface area to volume ratio will experience the greatest weight change, because more water can move by osmosis across the potato cell’s semi permeable membrane. 2) If potato pieces are immersed in various salt solutions, then the pieces immersed in the most concentrated solution will experience he greatest weight change, because more water must pass across the potato cells semi permeable membrane by osmosis to achieve an equilibrium. The results from testing these hypotheses did not support either and were shown to be flawed because they did not reflect the theories of osmosis relating to surface area to volume ration and salt concentration.…

    • 3499 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Potato Osmosis Lab

    • 1094 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In order for cells to interact with their environment, molecules must be able to move through the cell membrane. Movement within the cell occurs by diffusion. Molecules move through the cell membrane by osmosis. Diffusion is the movement of molecules from a region of higher concentration to a region of lower concentration. This happens because of random molecular motion. Molecules move around randomly until there is an even mixture throughout cell and mixture. The overall effect is that molecules move down a concentration gradient from a region of high concentration to a region of low concentration which is passive transport. Osmosis is the movement of molecules down a concentration gradient and at the same time…

    • 1094 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In biology, osmosis is defined as the diffusion of solvent molecules (usually water molecules) across a semi-permeable membrane from a region of lower solute concentration to a region of higher solute concentration.…

    • 2342 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Diffusion of Osmosis

    • 786 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Osmosis is a specialized case of diffusion that involves the passive transport of water. When osmosis occurs water moves through a selectively permeable membrane from a region of its higher concentration to a region of its lower concentration. The membrane selectively allows passage of certain types of molecules while restricting the movement of others.…

    • 786 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    A Level Coursework

    • 1218 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The aim of this investigation was to discover the effect that water concentration had on the mass of potato tissue, and to investigate the movement of osmosis through potato tissue, osmosis being the passage of water molecules from a weaker solution to a stronger solution, though a partially permeable membrane. In this case, the membrane of the potatoes allowed the water molecules to pass through in and out of the solution and the potato, depending on the concentration gradient of the two substances.…

    • 1218 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Osmosis in Potatoes

    • 1673 Words
    • 7 Pages

    In this experiment, I will be looking to investigate the effect of varying concentration of a sugar solution on the amount of osmotic activity between the solution and a potato chip of a given size. The potato chips were cut to size, then added to a water based sugar solution, where the variable was the amount of sugar added. The potato chips were cut to size by a potato chip cutter, leaving them all roughly the same size, then further adaptations to the potatoes were made using a sharp knife in order to allow the potatoes to be re-sized to a more accurate size in comparison to the other potato chips.…

    • 1673 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics